Blog on weight, How to Lose Fat on the Cheap

  Eating too much of the wrong foods gets all of us in trouble, but we love to indulge ourselves. In other posts I’ve written about the genetic causes of overweight and the addictive causes, I touch on the emotional ways we cause our own weight problems. Bad eating habits are easy to pick up. We get some of these bad habits at home. When I was growing up in a German household, we eat plenty of good wholesome food but it’s what we add in to give the food the extra flavor that adds the pounds. As families became more prosperous, we became more indulgent. Potatoes, for instance, are a good wholesome food with plenty of nutrition but when we add all that butter and maybe some sour cream and bacon bits, well now that nutritious potato is about 800 calories or half of your daily calorie allowance. We usually had broccoli on the table, but everyone liked it with cheddar cheese melted on top. There’s nothing wrong with cheese, but it does add calories. Milk was on the table for every meal....

Did you know people in some European countries are thinner than us, on average.  When I was in Europe I didn’t see a low-calorie food. Restaurants had no diet food or low-calorie meals. But no one was what we call obese. I’ve personally been to more than 15 European countries and normal people are in better shape than American. I read a non-diet book last year “The Secret of Eating” where the author explains that diets don’t work. This is a weight loss book about how this woman had gained 20 pounds while going to school in the States and then lost the weight when returning to France, her home country. She goes on to say that in France women don’t get fat. In the States when she was going to school the portions of food were too large and foods were too sweet. When returning to Europe she returned home and returned to eating the way she grew up. In Europe, women eat sensibly. Good food of very high quality and eaten in small portions. Good food does not mean good tasting, it means fo...

  I read several posts every day and the one I thought was the best one I read recently was on WordPress.com. The author Banded Girl writes about her battle with weight and her post is worth a read. “Your pants Don’t lie” and I copied a small part: so,  after all these things happened,  I gave up,  i started eating more,  drinking more,  not exercising,  eating more than i know is right,  and stopped believing in  myself,  what is the end result? My pants not buttoning do NOT lie, it speaks the truth. I started eating more, drinking more, not exercising, more than i know is right, and I stopped believing in myself. What was the result? My pants not buttoning do NOT lie. My pants speak the truth. It is UP to me to get back on track, I can say and write what i want, but until I do, actually do something about it, my pants will continue to tell the truth. The post she wrote is really about her facing “reality”. She doesn’t need a ...

Humans developed a natural urge to eat too much but have no built-in control to keep from becoming overweight or obese, according to researchers from the University of Exeter in England. That’s because being overweight was not a significant survival threat to our ancestors while being underweight was dangerous. And the compulsion to maintain body fat is even stronger in the winter when our ancestors typically had trouble finding enough food, the study authors explained in a university news release. The investigators used computer modeling to predict how much fat humans and other animals should store. Their findings were published Jan. 5 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “You would expect evolution to have given us the ability to realize when we have eaten enough, but instead, we show little control when faced with artificial food,” study lead author Andrew Higginson, of the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, said in the news release. “Because modern food today...

  We all talk about trying to get healthy, but most of us fail at the attempt. We think we know what we have to do, but we don’t seem to get it done. Maybe we don’t know how we just think we do. The way we used to lose weight in our younger days isn’t going to be the same and that’s why most of us fail. In the AARP mag I read that even those of us over 50 can get benefit from exercise like walking, yoga, swimming and free weights if we stick to it. We don't have to live our senior years the way our parents did. We are healthier today and we do live a healthier lifestyle. On average, North American are healthier and have better healthcare than ever before. You can see the results in the younger generations. The good news is that anyone at any age can benefit from a healthy diet and more exercise.  Never give up trying though, any improvement you can make will add time to your life. Exercise will stop the body from aging when you exercise daily. Most of us want to be healthier a...

 If your testosterone levels are high—something that can occur with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)—you might have difficulty losing weight.  "If you're an apple shape and overweight, too, it's a good idea to see your [healthcare provider]," said Dr. Kashyap. That's because some people with PCOS have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.  In some cases of PCOS, the body may be unable to make enough insulin, a hormone that helps your cells absorb sugars. Without enough insulin, you may develop high blood sugar, which damages your body’s systems.11 Dr. Cheskin also added that people with higher testosterone levels tend to carry more fat in their bellies. On the other hand, people who have higher levels of estrogen than others typically find more weight around their lower half. Follow me on Twitter @GertsRay70369 Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover. If you r...

Most Americans still think Obesity is for the seriously overweight, those people that are 400 pounds or more. It’s not true if your body mass is 30% fat you’re considered to be Obese. I found this post in a newsletter I received the other day. (HealthDay News) — Obesity is nearly three times more deadly for men than it is for women, new research suggests. In a study of nearly 4 million men and women around the globe, the risk of dying before the age of 70 was 19 percent for men and 11 percent for women of normal weight. But that risk jumped to 30 percent and 15 percent, respectively, for obese men and women. That’s an absolute increased risk of 11 percent for men and 4 percent for women, the researchers reported. Why do women have less risk? Women are able to carry more because they can give childbirth. Their system protects them almost all their lives from weight problems. “Obesity is second only to smoking as a cause of premature death in America,” said lead researcher Richard Pe...

“Cheat Meals” like at the holidays can throw you back two or three weeks on your weight loss goals.  That’s what you want to remember when you sit down to a festive meal. How much will this set me back? How long will it take to get back to my weight yesterday? I know all about overeating at those family gatherings. In this case, we are talking about Thanksgiving. Around my house or at anyone’s house I know there are two parts to the big feast. First, we eat a huge dinner, sometimes three kinds of meat, two different types of dressing, two types of cranberries, several types of potatoes, and several different vegetables. The idea is that no one, no matter how fuzzy, will go away hungry. There is always something for everyone in unlimited quantities. Then comes the second part, which usually is about one hour later, “dessert”. This is what everyone has been waiting for. If it’s a big gathering like 10 or 12 or more the whole table will be filled with pies, cakes, chocolate candies, b...

  I had a comment from one of my readers. I wrote a post about the benefits of quitting sugar and my reader said she tried it. She quit sugar for Lent. It's about forty days and just in those forty days she told me she felt the difference. She actually felt better just by not adding any sugar or other sweeteners. She lost 5 pounds and isn’t experiencing the food craving or mode swings she had before. A great article that explains why we workout but don’t lose any inches. The article explains why you could be working out just to burn the sugar and other sources of energy but not real fat. by Shaun Hadsall Did you know that the years of eating processed foods, lack of exercise, and normal eating patterns have literally PROGRAMMED your body to burn NOTHING but calories and sugars from the foods you consume everyday… …INSTEAD of burning off your ugly body fat? In fact, today’s exercise programs take way too much time and use old-school methods that cause you to crave more food and...